The invention concerns a gas laser, particularly a fast axial flow gas transport laser having a discharge tube.
In order to increase the laser output performance in such gas lasers, the inside diameter of the discharge tube should guarantee, on one hand, optimum throughflow of laser gas with minimum variation of pressure loss between the intake and outlet openings of the discharge tube, and, on the other hand, the homogeneity of the discharge in the discharge tube by means of a swirling of the laser gas.
In order to fulfill these requirements in a fast flow gas laser, it is known, on one hand, how to design the inside cross section according to the diameter of the laser gas beam and, on the other hand, how to achieve homogeneity of the laser gas discharge by action to guide the flow. Hereby, the discharge of the laser gas occurs over ring electrodes arranged in end heads.
In this known development of the discharge tube with optimum tube diameter and laser gas inflow at ring electrodes, it is a disadvantage that no complete homogeneization is achieved.
A slow flow laser with stabilized swirling flow is known from German DE-OS No. 30 27 321 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,647) in which at least one ribbed ring is arranged in the discharge tube concentrically with the longitudinal axis of the discharge tube.
Studies have shown that such a ribbed ring arranged in the discharge tube in the fast flow gas laser described at the outset does not increase the laser output performance.